QUES ANSW DIVINE 05-2022-06 Dear friends,
These are information compiled as QA by me in1998’s-2014’s and stored in my computer. They are posted by very learnt members.Where details are stored, it is told below the answer. BEING COMPILATION THERE MAYBE ERRORS. Sincerely, R. Gopalakrishnan, 78, dated 10-05-2022 Q1 How many chapters are there in Ashta vakra samhita? What is told therein in nut shell? A1 Ashta vakra samhitha has twenty chapters. In nutshell what is told is given below CHAPTER 1:It all starts when King Janaka asks the sage Ashtavakra how hecan attainKnowledge, detachment, liberation. Ashtavakra tells him.Ashtavakra expounds toKing Janaka the characteristic of the self and instructs him on the knowledgeof the self that is natural and ever-existent. CHAPTER 2: It works! Upon hearingAshtavakra’s words Janakarealizes his true Nature. Enraptured, he describes the joy and wonder of hisnew state. An amazed Janaka relates the joy of his own experiences on realizingthe subtleties of the principles explained. CHAPTER 3: Ashtavakra is delighted for Janaka but sees inconsistencies. He firesoff a series of confrontational verses about attachment to worldly pleasure.Ashtavakra deprecates the attachments within and without and enunciates thestatus of the realized. CHAPTER 4:Janaka asserts that the Lord of the Universe can do ashepleases. Janaka dwells at length onthe glory of jnana “the state of self-realization. CHAPTER 5:Ashtavakra does not disagree, but in a terse four verses points to thenext step”dissolution. Ashtavakra instructs Janaka that the world and itsobjects and the experiences in the world are all imagines and unreal andexhorts him therefore to gain equanimity of perception and get dissolved in theself. CHAPTER 6:Janaka says œI know that already matching him in style and number of verses. Janaka replies that the self being thesubstratum of the circumscribed world of insentience, the question of rejectingit or accepting it or making it naught doesn’t arise. CHAPTER 7:Unable to leave it at that, however, Janaka goes on to furtherdescribe his enlightened state. Janaka says that the knower of the self is onewho is firmly poised in the expansive or limitless experience and sees only oneand therefore the world appearances create no impact either favourable orunfavourable in him; nor do they generate attraction or repulsion towards them. CHAPTER 8:Still hearing too much in Janaka’s language,Ashtavakra instructs him in the subtleties of attachment and bondage. Ashtavakra then proceeds to dwellon the nature of bondage and release and reiterates the need to be ˜ego-less(without the I) and to remain without either accepting or rejecting. CHAPTER 9:Ashtavakra continues to describe the way of true detachment.He furtheraffirms that knowledge dawns only when the pairs of opposites are renounced andthat destruction of vasanas (desires etc) is the destruction of samsara (world)and that alone is the true state of being. CHAPTER 10: Ashtavakra hammers away at the folly of desire”no matter how elevatedor subtle. Ashtavakra enjoins Janaka to eschew into virtuous conduct,wealth, enjoyment“ all transitory andunreal “ and thus freed of desire and therefore action stilled to rest only inbliss. CHAPTER 11:Ashtavakra further describes the state of desirelessness to which hepoints. The way of the world in its entirety is the ˜dharma’ (the innatefeature) of nature. The cause of grief is œthoughts�. Only the one who stays firmly anchored in Atman “ the substratum of all “ will enjoy the bliss ofpeace. CHAPTER 12:Janaka replies by describing the state of timeless stillness in which henow finds himself. Janaka speaks of thestate of abiding in the self as self, totally detached from all deeds “physical, mental and vocal. CHAPTER 13:Janaka, having been instructed by Ashtavakra in Chapter One to behappy, reports that he indeed is. Janaka dwells on the experience of beatitudein abiding as self “ the natural state “ absolutely thought free. CHAPTER 14:Janaka then summarizes his exalted state with calm indifference.Janaka states that none can comprehend the ways of a jnani who roams the worldwith perfect freedom with content less (devoid of thoughts) mind as his verynature and therefore desire less and anchored firmly in the awareness of ˜Being’. CHAPTER15:Impressed but not through teaching, Ashtavakra relentlessly points tothe vast emptiness of Self. That “ the very embodiment of knowledge, thesubstratum of the world which keeps alternating between appearance and thedisappearance “ art thou. That true content that disappears with the desire forthe olycets of the world and appears with the removal of it art Thou. Thoualone art everything. Therefore be ever I bliss absolutely free of thought “positive or negative “ or contemplation of the goal. CHAPTER 16:Ashtavakra attacks the futility of effort and knowing. Ashtavakra instructs further that the beatitude of the Atman is gained bymerely forgetting everything (all the non-self). The state of supreme bliss isthe state of objectless awareness devoid of effort of any kind. To abide in it,one must remain freed of likes and dislikes, ˜I and mine’ and thoughts. Chapter 17:Ashtavakra describes the nature of one who is truly free. Ashtavakradescribes the exalted and in describable nature of the ˜Atmarama’ who revels inthe self and who enjoys the same bliss whatever he is faced with. CHAPTER18:Finally, Ashtavakra hits him with everything he’s got”100verses ofpure non-duality. If this doesn’t do it, nothing will.Abidance in one’s naturalstate of quiescence by renouncing everything else is bliss. All other sadhanasare first for novices. One who abides as self stands apart from the ways of theworld duty, dualities and mistaken thoughts are not for hum. His nature iswonderful. Freedom from bondage alone bestows this exalted state. A jnani the˜dhira’ stands heads and shoulders above the hapless ignorant. The bond-freenatural state of a jnani is more beatific than the rule bound state of asadhak. Only a jnani can know another jnani. He abides forever in the non-dualstate with no ˜other’ or a second- the cause of attachment and aversion.Viewing equally life and death, solitude and maddening crowd he will beanchored firmly in the true content. (Thus Ashtavakra expatriates) CHAPTER 19:It works! Janaka no longer describes his enlightened state, but canspeak only in questions revealing absence. Janaka affirms his firm abidance inthe glory of the self; by his non-mediated experience of jnana gained byhamstring all thoughts “positive and negative. He further declares that exceptthe glory of the self, he has nothing else. CHAPTER 20:In a final flurry of questions pointing only at their ownmeaninglessness, Janaka burns off the last vestiges of personhood and entersdissolution. He ends with: œNo more can be said. Ashtavakrasmiles, nods approvingly, and says no more.Janaka conclusively affirms that inthem who is pure awareness personified there exist neither the instruments of action, nor of perception,none whatsoever of the dualities, the triads of actions, the world, the jivas;maya, samsara and mukti. Q2 There was a lady sage (Rishika) living with sage Yanjvalkya with the permission of his wife. Namethe Rishika. Do he was in favour ofRishikas? A2 Till the time of the discussion (tharkha) between Yajanvalika and GARGI/MAITAEYI (thereis a difference in views as to the particular lady ) when he could not give a satisfactoryanswer Yajnvalika propounded that women are not to learn Vedas . Q3 Can you name a few rishikas whose sukthas/Rks are there in the Vedas. A3 The following are the names ofa few Rishikas whose sukthas/Rks are there in the Vedas. 1.Lopamudra Rk Veda 1 :179:1 and Yajur Veda 17:11:36:20 2Romasha !:126 : 7 and some samans in the sama veda 3 Vishwavara Atraeyi Rk Veda 5:28 4Apala Atreyi rk V 5:89:11 to 5:89:17 5 Shaswati AngirasiRk Veda 8:134 6Agastya Swasa rk V 10:60:6 7Indra Matad(I?)Rk Veda 10:153 and also in Sama Veda 8 Indra Snusha Vasukraoatni Rk Veda 10:28:1 9 Godha Rk Veda 10:134:6 and 7 (part) 10 Gosha Khahshiwathi Rk Veda 10:39,40 11 Ratri Bhardwaj part of Rk Veda 10:127 11 Surya Savitri Rk Veda 10:85 12 Suniti Yajur Veda 33:21 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/911575924.934179.1652151303508%40mail.yahoo.com.
